WARNING: Patch 12.1 Spoilers in this post!
Arator's Doubts in the Light
Arator has arguably been the main character of Midnight, featuring as the protagonist in Eversong Woods, Voidstorm, and even his own personal leveling campaign chapter. Throughout those stories, he has served as a skeptical lens against the zealous devotion to the Light held by those around him, such as Liadrin, Lothraxion, and even his father Turalyon.
By the end of the leveling story, he finds himself with a more secure relationship to the Light, finding ways in which it can be wielded in times of peace and defense rather than war and death, as he thought paladins should. With that confidence, he was able to spearhead the defense of Quel'Thalas against the Void, rallying the elven tribes of Azeroth together to stop Xal'atath at the Darkwell.
Amidst that story, however, he also suffered the loss of both of his parents yet again. At the conclusion of the Voidspire raid, Xal'atath severely wounds Alleria with the Blade of the Black Empire, drawing the dark naaru from inside her and leaving her seemingly on death's door. When the naaru was used to convert the Voidspire into a conduit to corrupt the Sunwell into the Darkwell, both Alleria and Turalyon fell down into its depths, with Arator only barely surviving thanks to Magister Umbric's intervention.
Since the restoration of the Darkwell into the newly formed Dawnwell, a measure of peace has settled over Quel'Thalas, but Arator instead has been spending his days sulking near its waters, praying to the Light for answers about the whereabouts of Xal'atath and his parents. It is there that we find him in the final chapter of patch 12.1's campaign, as we arrive with Umbric to convince Arator to aid us in a new mission.
At the Dawnwell, Arator reveals that even though he asks day after day, the Light has given him no answers about any of his questions. Despite the shift in his relationship with the Light during his personal campaign, Arator also experienced a number of moments that made him doubt not just his own faith, but the nature of Light itself during Midnight. Even from the opening moments of the expansion, when fending off the Devouring Host, he unleashed the Light so wrathfully that he burned himself and his armor, an experience he brings up numerous times throughout the leveling story.
Alleria Windrunner says: Tell me of Silvermoon, Arator. How bad was it?
Arator says: Honestly, if not for the Light forces intervening when they did, we would have lost everything.
Alleria Windrunner says: I see. And your father, is he well?
Arator says: He... I fear the Light... blinds him, Mother. In his rage, he... he struck down an innocent.
Alleria Windrunner says: Who, Arator?
Arator says: That... doesn't matter now. What matters is that if the Light can turn someone like him wrathful...
Alleria Windrunner says: You fear succumbing to it yourself.
Arator says: I already did, fighting the Void. You see these embers I bear? I burned myself in wrath. They remain as a reminder.
Alleria Windrunner says: Of what?
Arator says: That there's something... wrong with the Light.
Arator says: That thought terrifies me more than the Void ever could.
When the Light overtook Turalyon at the Amani Pass, he ended up wounding his own son instead of his intended target, and that moment wasn't the first time the Light has overtaken Turalyon either. In the novel Blood Ties, we see Turalyon give himself over fully to the Light to save his son, resulting in near-catastrophe when the zealous, singular purity of the Light began turning on their allies.
Nothing existed for Turalyon now other than Arator. Arator, his only blood, so bright, loved by the Light, loved by Alleria, loved by him—
Arator, and the unholy thing that had snatched him right before his father’s horrified gaze. Tears poured down his face, and his heart was gripped with fear.
But not for long.
Screaming rose around him, the sounds of a fight still going, of anguished cries. Turalyon did not heed them. He roared his fury, uttered words that were raw and powerful, calling on the Light’s justice and power to annihilate this wretched, terrible being of fel, of darkness, of cruelty. To use him, however it saw fit, to accomplish this task.
Turalyon felt the Light answer at once, racing through him, its radiance, its heat, building, enveloping him, ready to be unleashed.
He called for justice.
Fury.
Wrath.
The world went white.
A male figure, tall and powerfully built, wrapped in gleaming, harsh white-gold light that obscured his features but flooded every part of the rocky space.
It was, as she knew and feared it would be, her beloved.
And yet it was not.
Alleria had seen Turalyon call upon the avenging aspect of the Light many times before. But it had never done this to him. As the sun lit the land, as a naaru shimmered and gleamed, thus was Turalyon. His white hair was the hue of a shaft of sunlight, his skin glowed gold, and brilliance poured from him almost like a waterfall of Light.
And his face… His handsome features were contorted in sheer, perfect rage. The scars on his face burned white, and his eyes were now twin suns. He was shouting, his melodic voice ringing out yet still his, still beautiful; church bells not calling the faithful to fellowship, but sounding the warning of a conflagration. The words were filled with hate, fury, and righteousness, but Alleria could not understand them, only feel their power.
Even during the ultimate fight against Xal'atath during the Voidspire raid, one of the biggest threats ended up not being the Devouring Host, but our very own allies in the Vanguard of the Light. Pushed to paranoia and zealotry just like Lothraxion was in the leveling campaign, the Vanguard commanders turn on Alleria and Arator, forcing us to kill them.
Suffice it to say, Arator's doubts in the Light did not start with this story in patch 12.1, but it certainly seems like they are coming to a head. Even though he wishes that he had fallen through the Darkwell alongside his parents, Arator is still here, with his current path yielding no results. Instead, Umbric offers him another path: the Void.
Magister Umbric: When I look upon the Void, do you know what I see?
Arator: Nothingness?
Magister Umbric: Possibilities. Infinite possibilities.
Magister Umbric: Through which there is always a way forward.
Arator: You found something.
Magister Umbric: A new lead: activity in the Twilight's Blade that may point to Xal'atath's whereabouts.
Magister Umbric: I want you to investigate it with me.
Arator: Well then. If the Light doesn't have the answers, maybe the Void will.
Exposure to the Void
Despite accepting Umbric's offer to pursue the possibilities he saw within the Void, Arator's mind is rather singularly focused on his pursuit of Xal'atath when we arrive at Deatholme. With the Twilight's Blade as strong as ever, we investigate the camp to find clues from various commanders, conspicuous troll tablets, and a strangely helpful voidling.
Throughout these pursuits, Arator constantly prods Umbric to use his mastery of the Void to pull more direct answers from the minds of the Twilight cultists, which Umbric refuses. To Umbric, wielding the Void in such a single-minded manner doesn't just risk too much for the sake of efficiency; it is the first step down a descent into becoming the monsters many believe his people to be.
Magister Umbric says: Amani relics... why would the cult bring these here?
Arator says: We should be asking them. And forcing them to answer.
Arator says: Umbric, why not use the Void to pry into the cultists' minds?
Magister Umbric says: No, Arator. Such measures are too dangerous for my liking.
Magister Umbric says: It seems Xal'atath has abandoned her underlings.
Twilight Death-Dealer says: This is our chance to prove ourselves!
Arator says: Serves them right. But they might still know enough to lead us to her.
Arator says: Umbric, we'd make faster progress if you'd just pull the information from these cultists' minds with the Void.
Arator says: I've seen my mother do it before, and I know you can do it too.
Magister Umbric says: I could. But tell me, Arator... how did things play out when Alleria used the Void in that way?
Arator says: We... got what we needed. But it was a struggle. One that ended in the death of the ethereal we were questioning.
Magister Umbric says: Such is the nature of the Void. It is volatile and all-consuming. To wield it comes with immense risk.
Magister Umbric says: And even if it didn't... what's to stop me from doing it again? I would be shredding the psyches of my foes for the sake of expediency.
Magister Umbric says: If I were to use the Void to extract the knowledge we seek, it could very well tear our minds asunder in the process.
Magister Umbric says: There are those who accuse me--and all void elves--of being monsters. I will not prove them right.
Amidst delving through Deatholme for information, we also empower the voidling with more and more energy, eventually discovering its true identity: Lord Antenorian. The former magistrate of Tranquillien was last seen as the final boss of the Ruins of Deatholme delve, where he fled after nearly destroying Tranquillien with the Twilight's Blade and being promptly abandoned by Xal'atath. With his former underlings now in a similar position, he took advantage of our presence to enact revenge and regrow his strength.
When Antenorian flees into the Void to escape us, Arator's single-minded crusade once again overtakes him, and he recklessly jumps into the portal without hesitation. Unwilling to lose Arator to the Void like his parents were, Umbric enters behind him, and we aid Arator in fending off the Void -- and hopefully knocking Antenorian out of the null space in the process.
Arator says: Umbric, help! It... it hurts!
Lord Antenorian yells: What's this? Does the child of Light drown in the Void?
Arator says: It's all happening again! I'm--I'm falling!
Magister Umbric says: Focus, Arator. Find your center in the darkness!
Arator says: Is this... is this what they felt?
Magister Umbric says: The Void will tear you apart if you let it! Envision our escape in your mind's eye
Lord Antenorian yells: Foolish mortals! You cannot survive the Void! Whereas I am empowered by it!
Magister Umbric says: Arator. See the path to victory. How do we hit him hard and fast?
Arator says: My shield! Take it.
Inside, Arator writhes against the Void due to his connection to the Light as a paladin. The holy bubble around him only barely protects him, but he lowers it to throw us his shield, allowing us to force Antenorian out of the Void -- and exposing Arator to its raw power in the process.
While we swiftly follow him and exit into Zul'Aman, Arator is still overtaken by the Void, panicking and desperately trying to shrug it off. On the advice of Umbric, Arator manages to control the Void in an oddly remarkable amount of time, focusing for mere moments to dissipate it.
Once Arator recovers, he discusses the true reveal from our time in Deatholme: the Darkwell was not merely a conduit, but a gateway. When examining the cinematic at the end of Quel'danas, this becomes rather clear, with the beam at the center of the Darkwell traveling downwards into Azeroth. If you look closely, you can even see the armies of the Devouring Host all traveling down at a rapid pace, and Xal'atath herself heads in that direction just before she closes it off.
Despite Arator's exposure to the Void and its endless possibilities and Umbric's chastising words, Arator continues his singular desire to pursue Xal'atath... but it already sounds like he has managed to find a viable path towards managing the Void, even after one encounter.
Arator says: What was that place?
Magister Umbric says: Nowhere, and everywhere in between.
Magister Umbric says: Antenorian blindly opened a rift into it, and you followed him without a second thought.
Arator says: I couldn't let him get away. Not when he can tell us where Xal'atath's gone.
Magister Umbric says: And how could you pursue Xal'atath if you yourself had been lost or torn apart?
Magister Umbric says: We are both fortunate that you were able to maintain your sense of self for as long as you did.
Arator says: Toward the end, I could feel... not control, exactly. More like I was riding a wave without sinking beneath it.
Magister Umbric says: Hmm. That's usually the most one can hope for when dealing with the Void. Keep that in mind, Arator.
After investigating the Twilight's Blade in the area where we landed, we learn that they are searching for some kind of Dark General, one that was unleashed in the aftermath of Ula'tek's defeat. Umbric quickly discovers Antenorian's location, but while we close in on him, he manages to hold us in his grasp -- at least, until Arator intervenes.
In a moment of pure spontaneity, Arator is able to wield the Void with enough mastery to effortlessly peer into Antenorian's mind, uncovering exactly what the Twilight's Blade have been searching for: Kith'ix, the C'thraxxi general who was brought back from death by Xal'atath eons ago, and who fell against Ula'tek and the ancient Amani at the birth of their empire.
The sudden ability to wield the Void is not all that Arator shows off in this moment, however. After retrieving the necessary information with the Void, Arator is still able to wield the Light as a paladin, using it to strike Antenorian down once and for all.
Lord Antenorian says: You fall right into my trap!
Arator says: No!
Magister Umbric says: Arator, what are you doing?
Arator says: I--It just happened! But... I can see into his mind!
Arator says: There's... a giant monstrosity... and a name! Kith'ix!
Lord Antenorian says: I know not where Xal'atath has gone. But I do know that with Ula'tek slain, Kith'ix is free to rise again!
Lord Antenorian says: You will drown in blood!
Arator says: This ends now!
Magister Umbric says: All this time, Ula'tek was preventing Kith'ix from being resurrected. And now there's nothing left to stop its return.
Arator says: Nothing... except us. We need to report back to Silvermoon. Now.
Magister Umbric says: Arator, what you did in that tomb...
Arator says: I know. And you can lecture me later. We need to warn Lor'themar of what we've learned.
Having learned only small amounts about Xal'atath and her plans with the Darkwell, and much more about another threat unleashed thanks to Zul'jan's actions in patch 12.1, Arator makes a difficult choice: to put aside his focused pursuit of Xal'atath and instead devote himself to the search for Kith'ix.
Lor'themar praises him for this, seeing it as similar to the sacrifices made by his mother Alleria back in Warcraft 2, but he also expresses worry to Umbric about Arator's newfound use of the Void. Ultimately, it seems like Arator's single-minded pursuit of Xal'atath has given him not only the ability to still wield the Light despite his doubts, but also the ability to resist the downsides of the Void and wield it to great effect. Despite this, Umbric and Lor'themar worry about what might happen to Arator in the future, given the history of his star-crossed parents.
Arator says: As much as I want to pursue Xal'atath, I can't abandon Quel'Thalas or Zul'Aman in a time of need. You have my blade.
Lor'themar Theron says: Facing evil at great personal cost... You are your mother's son, Arator.
Lor'themar Theron says: Umbric. Something has changed in Arator. What happened out there?
Magister Umbric says: We pursued our quarry into a rift in the fabric of reality. To survive it, I had to give Arator a haphazard lesson in how to manipulate the Void.
Lor'themar Theron says: But Arator is a paladin of the Light. How could he do that without causing a violent reaction?
Magister Umbric says: I'm tempted to attribute it to sheer luck. Yet both you and I know that Arator possesses a willpower like few others.
Magister Umbric says: Though he does not wield the Void, I suspect his determination to find Xal'atath gives him the strength to withstand its presence even while calling upon the Light.
Lor'themar Theron says: Let us hope that remains to be true. I've seen what happens when those two forces collide. There is a reason Turalyon and Alleria so often drift apart.
Magister Umbric says: And Arator is son to both of them. Perhaps in more ways than one.
Magister Umbric says: I will keep an eye on him, and guide him when he needs it. Arator has touched the Void... and that seldom happens only once.
The Child of Light and Shadow
No matter one's thoughts on Arator, there is one clear question on the minds of many lore fans after seeing this questline: Is Arator the Child of Light and Shadow?
To understand this question, it is important to understand what the Child of Light and Shadow actually is. The prophecy surrounding the title first showed up during Legion, during our first interaction with the prime naaru Xe'ra. After retrieving her heart and safeguarding it from the Legion, we receive a vision from her where she beseeches us to aid her Army of the Light by bringing her the prophetic child: Illidan Stormrage.
Xe'ra says: I am Xe'ra, one of the first naaru to be forged here during the great ordering of the cosmos.
Xe'ra says: You have come to the crucible of all creation in search of answers. Listen then, and find enlightenment.
Xe'ra says: In a time now long past, a great battle was fought that would determine the fate of all worlds. It was in that final battle that the all-powerful titan Pantheon fell to one of their own: Sargeras.
Xe'ra says: After the fall, none were left to oppose the will of Sargeras. Unfettered, the dark titan and his Burning Legion would go on to annihilate countless worlds in their Burning Crusade.
Xe'ra says: From the ashes of those ravaged worlds, survivors arose to stand against the demons. They became known as the Army of the Light.
Xe'ra says: But now, the Golden Army teeters upon the precipice of oblivion as their campaign on Argus nears its terminus. Should they fall, the Legion will initiate a new Burning Crusade, and with it the cosmos will tremble.
Xe'ra says: I am here now on a mission of desperation. I seek the child of Light and Shadow: the boy destined to end the age of demons.
Xe'ra says: The one called Illidan Stormrage.
Over the course of the expansion, Xe'ra gave us visions of Illidan's past, preaching about his worthiness as someone willing to sacrifice anything to ensure the Legion's downfall. As a night elven child marked from birth with unique golden eyes, Illidan had always been destined for great things -- even if he sacrificed those very eyes in his pursuit of the power needed to defeat the Legion.
To Xe'ra, the prophesied Child of Light and Shadow was someone entrenched in darkness and "redeemed" by the Light. She did not simply intend to guide this chosen one to victory against the Burning Legion, but into the ultimate battle between Light and Void as well.
When Xe'ra finally met Illidan, things went... poorly. After arriving on Argus and reuniting her heart with her body, Xe'ra insisted that he was destined to fulfill the prophecy. As a being of pure Light, her view of the future is uniform and singular, and quite opposite to the endless possibilities glimpsed in the Void. In her view, if Illidan is the prophesied Child of Light and Shadow, she must fulfill that prophecy at any cost.
In one of the franchise's more iconic scenes, Illidan rejects Xe'ra's forced attempt to "redeem" him through Lightforging -- and in turn, rejects his role as the child of prophecy. In his view, there is no singular chosen one or grand prophecy to guide them, but their own mortal determination to survive.
...Of course, such definitive statements seldom deter lore fans. Even amidst Illidan's climactic rejection of prophecy, another storyline was occurring at the same time on Argus: the return of Alleria and Turalyon. Where Turalyon was shown to fully embrace his paladin origins as a Lightforged commander of the Army of the Light, Alleria went down a new path and embraced the Void's powers. Once an inseparable couple, the two were now divided between Light and Shadow -- and in the middle was Arator.
Freshly reintroduced into the story and reunited with his parents, Arator was the obvious next choice for the Child of Light and Shadow. The prophetic title was quite literal in his case, with one parent leading the Light's forces, and the other spearheading ways to wield the Void for good. His split heritage no longer just meant a divide between elves and humans, but between cosmic forces, and speculation certainly ran wild.
Arator was not the only speculated candidate during Legion, however. At the time, rumors surrounding the prophetic use of Light and Void also frequently circulated around Warcraft's other notable holy blonde protagonist, Anduin Wrynn.
Back during the Cataclysm, before the words "Child of Light and Shadow" had ever directly been uttered, Anduin had the hand of prophecy on him thanks to his tutelage under Velen. During some of his first lessons towards becoming a priest of the Light under the Draenei leader, the Prophet bore witness to a vision of the ultimate war between Light and Shadow -- and a grand holy warrior at its center.
He spun to face the prince, surprised, as he often was when it came to humans, by how quickly the child seemed to be becoming a man, by the adult in the words hurled at him. And as soon as Anduin came into view, the world changed.
Instead of the prince, an armored warrior stood before him, his plate helm and breastplate shining with the essence of the Light itself. The warrior wielded a sword forged from the same material as the armor, held it aloft as he perched on an outcropping... Whether it was on another world or Azeroth, Velen couldn't quite tell. And suddenly the dark sky above erupted with the combined chivalry of Azeroth's races. The blood elves, orcs, trolls, tauren, and even the accursed undead and scheming goblins rode flying mounts of every sort and description. They were armored and armed with magical weaponry glowing with so much power it hurt Velen's eyes to look at them. Beside the legions of the Horde, the ancient night elves charged with humans, dwarves, and gnomes, whose ancestors formed the original Alliance, and the shape-changing worgen were united with them. Velen's own Draenei bolstered the army, their ranks adorned in otherworldly metals and bearing crystalline maces and swords.
The Alliance and Horde were not alone.
Dragons swooped and soared in formations that made the sky resemble a giant multicolored, reptilian wing. They blanketed the horizon with their physical size and numbers, and when they roared a challenge, it shook not just the earth Velen stood on, but the universe as well.
And yet, for all this, the greatest shock to Velen's senses came as he saw those that flew just beyond the army of dragons. The naaru had taken the field, so many that Velen didn't understand how creation could contain them. The power of these beings of Light filled Velen's heart with hope, swept away the lonely centuries, and left him in wonder that he could ever despair, that the dark, no matter how terrible, could ever truly reign.
And then a shadow fell.
It was vast and empty and swallowed all light that entered it. Velen knew it would be all-consuming until, at last, it would turn and devour itself, endlessly gnawing on nothing in the Great Dark Beyond, removing all meaning from the universe, from the most heart-breaking sonata to the most arresting sunset. It was too terrible to see, to comprehend, and yet the army headed straight for it. And the light began to fade...
Standing before the Prophet was only a human man-child, eyes wide and passionate, saying something unintelligible to him.
With the direct parallel wrought between this holy warrior and Anduin by Velen in this short story, the obvious assumption is that the vision Velen had was of Anduin in the distant future. We had similar visions of Anduin's potential future in Legion as well, when his comic ended in the far future, where an elderly Anduin led the forces of the Light against the Shadow.
Anduin also had many small moments of peeking into darker forces as well. Since a young age, countless characters have made the obvious parallel between him and Arthas, as blonde, Light-wielding princes with a great love for their people. During Battle for Azeroth, the burdens of leadership even began to weigh heavily on him, and in the Shadows Rising novel, Anduin started to use shadow magic in small amounts.
Anduin made a soft sound of disgust and stood, hovering over her, considering her for a long and tense spell. A wisp of purple energy traveled down his arm, gathering in his palm. It happened in a blink, coming and going, dissipating before Mathias could see for certain what the king had done.
It startled Anduin enough to make him stumble backward. Shaw felt Jaina’s eyes upon him, and he glanced her way. If he was rattled before, the fear etched upon Jaina’s brow shook him to the core. Anduin winced, breathing hard, shaking out his hand before leaning back against the wall. Shaw knew better than to be staring when the king’s eyes began to roam their faces for a reaction.
However, Anduin seems to have fallen out of this role as the prophesied holy warrior since then. His time in the Shadowlands related much more to the powers of Death than anything Void-related, and in the aftermath of his domination by the Jailer, Anduin was traumatized so severely that he refused to use the Light for years. While he ultimately re-embraced it during his time in Khaz Algar, his path seems directed down the route of a healer rather than a prophetic paladin.
For Arator, meanwhile, the hints about his role in this prophecy have increased exponentially with his story in Midnight, even before this questline in patch 12.1. His revamped model alone has an incredibly on-the-nose set of dragon tattoos snaking up his arms and onto his head, with one inked in Light and the other in Shadow.
His story in Midnight also reflects his status as a unifying force: at every turn, Arator has an open mind towards those who choose to wield dark magics for the good of Azeroth, and it is his ability to unite the elves that ultimately results in the creation of the Dawnwell as a balanced font of Light and Void powers.
Now, in patch 12.1, all of those allusions and visual motifs become much more real in his story, as he finally begins to wield the Void -- all while still wielding the Light as well. Discipline Priest players might wonder why such a feat is anything special, but historically, the use of Light and Void in tandem results in a disastrously explosive end for their wielders.
In the story remaining in Midnight, the grand fight between Light and Shadow has yet to truly happen. The Devouring Host has traveled below Azeroth's surface (almost certainly to the Worldcore housing Azeroth's worldsoul), and the Vanguard of the Light similarly disappeared at the same time. Wherever they went is likely also where we will find Alleria and Turalyon -- be they dead or alive.
The Worldsoul Saga has also introduced another prophecy surrounding the grand battle between Light and Void: Renilash. Given to the people of the distant Arathi Empire by their holy Emperor, this prophetic conflict is the reason why we meet the half-elven Arathi in Hallowfall to begin with, and while we certainly had a conflict between Light and Void in that zone, it was just as inconclusive as the ongoing events of Midnight.
As the climax of Midnight's story, 12.2 may involve a proper, direct clash between these cosmic forces and their armies... and a character like Arator will certainly be standing in the middle of such a conflict now that he has begun to wield the powers of both Light and Void. Whether such a battle results in the vision Velen saw all the way back in Cataclysm or something else remains to be seen with the upcoming patch story.
With all of that in mind, the question remains: is Arator the Child of Light and Shadow? Only time will tell.
